Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends a Screenplay
by browneyes93
Summary: An excerpt from Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron's memoir rewritten into play form.


I had an assignment in school to read a book and research the country the book revolved around. I chose Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends by Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron and researched Holland. Later in the class we were given an extra credit project to take a scene from the book and write it in dialogue form (play form). This first section is from Bill and Babe's book. I do not take credit for writing it, just rearranging it in the second part. I hope you enjoy.

Original Section:

BROTHERS IN BATTLE, BEST OF FRIENDS

By, Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron

Chapter- Bastogne: Code Word for Hell

Winter 1944

_(Bill's Stories in italics)_

_ The Germans had us zeroed in. It was horrendous, there's no way to describe it. Shells were hitting all over the place and everybody was running to get into a foxhole, anybody's foxhole. Guys were getting hit, screaming, hollering for medics all over the woods, and there were very few medics around, you understand? Joe Toye was running around trying to get everyone to take cover. Next thing I know, Joe Toye is hollering, "I'm hit, I'm hit!" I looked up and he was lying on the ground about six to eight feet away from me. His leg was blown to bits, hanging off his body, all mangled, he was bleeding all over- from the chest, back, head, arms, legs. I thought he was dead. I ran out to try and get him to safety. As soon as I got to him, Wham! A treeburst exploded above our heads. I was hit. I fell next to Joe. I felt like I was on fire, like someone took a sizzling hot poker and was burning me. I thought I was dead. My right leg was blown off, and the snow was red from all the blood. I went from burning hot to freezing. Me and Joe lay there freezing in the snow, shivering, bleeding, both of us were full of shrapnel. He said, "Jesus Christ what the hell do I have to do to die?" It was Joe's fifth time hit. Lipton, Malarkey, and Babe came running over to help, I was half out of it. Doc Roe was right there, trying to patch us up. Without him we wouldn't be alive. Roe was the best medic we ever had. He was born to be a medic. You could always depend on him. You hollered, "Medic!" he was right there come hell or high water, he knew what he was doing. He was compassionate, took care of you mentally, physically, every way. They put me on a stretcher before Joe, I said, "I told you I'd beat you back to the States," and then I passed out._

I was in my foxhole on my machine gun about twenty feet away. The krauts really gave us a laddering that time, and guys were running over from other companies hollering, "We need medics, get some medics!" We told them, "Jesus Christ, we ain't got no medics to spare!" When Joe Toye got hit and then Bill, Hank Hanson told me and Ed Joint to run to the other woods and try to get another medic. I said, "Hank, they're coming over to us trying to get medics!" The only medic around was Roe; he was running around trying to take care of everybody, and he got right in there with Bill and Joe to try and stop the bleeding. They were both in bad, bad shape. I didn't think they were going to make it. None of us did. If you saw them, you wouldn't have given two cents for them. Their legs were hanging off them. I can't describe it. They were in bad shape. But they were calm. They just lay there. I tried to get a cigarette to Bill. I didn't know what else to do. There was a lot of confusion. Everybody was shook up because it was Bill and Joe. Me and Malarkey helped get them onto stretchers, and as luck would have it, a kid on a Jeep came by taking 81mm mortars to his unit, an antitank company. One of our guys, Eugene Jackson from Arnold, Pennsylvania, stopped the driver and told him, "Get these men to the aid station." The kid said, "I've got ammo to take up front." Jackson pulled his gun out and said, "The hell with the ammo! Get these men back!" One of our guys-we called him Sad Sack, because he looked like the comic strip character, and his helmet was always falling off his head-he was crying like hell, and he jumped on the Jeep to see them off. He cried for four or five days, just sat in his foxhole sobbing.

Joe Toye and Bill were the noncoms who really took care of the men. They were two tough sons of bitches, very courageous men. Bill risking his own life to save Toye—that tells you the kind of guy Bill is. He puts others before himself, to his own detriment. Losing just one of them was a blow to the platoon and the company. Losing both of them together shook us all up. You can't help thinking, _There but for the grace of God go I._

_SCREENPLAY_

BROTHERS IN BATTLE, BEST OF FRIENDS

Bastogne: Code Word for Hell

Characters:

Bill Guarnere

Babe Heffron

Joe Toye

Eugene Jackson

Driver

Doc Roe

Don Malarkey

Sad Sack

Carwood Lipton

Setting: Snow covered forest. Some tree tops are gone. Hidden foxholes are scattered about. American World War II soldiers stand talking to one another. Shells start falling and exploding. The soldiers scatter to get back to their foxholes. Men get hit. Screams for medics mix with the sound of artillery. Bill gets into a foxhole. Joe Toye is still running trying to help men find cover.

A shell explodes.

Joe: (lying on the ground, hollering) I'm hit, I'm hit!

Bill runs to Joe looks at his leg which is hanging off his body. Blood comes from everywhere.

Bill: (aside) I have to get him to safety.

A treeburst exploded above them. Bill is hit and falls to the ground beside Joe. Both men are shivering and bleeding into the snow.

Joe: Jesus Christ what the hell do I have to do to die? It's my 5th time hit.

Lipton, Malarkey, Babe and Doc Roe run over. Lipton, Malarkey and Babe stop in front of Bill and Joe. They are in shock. Roe goes straight to the men and tries to stop the bleeding.

Babe: (aside) They are in bad shape.

Lipton: (aside) It doesn't look good.

Malarkey: (aside) I don't think they are going to make it.

Roe: (looks up from working on Joe's leg) Don't just stand there help.

Babe steps towards Bill pulling out a cigarette and a lighter. He lights the cigarette and hands it to Bill.

Roe: We need to get them on stretchers.

Babe: (to Malarkey) Here, help me.

Babe and Malarkey put Bill on a stretcher and then Joe. A Jeep is seen in the background driving towards the front lines. Eugene Jackson had been standing and watching the men help Bill and Joe. Eugene runs and stops the Jeep.

Eugene: Get these men to the aid station!

Driver: I have to get this ammo to the front.

Eugene: (pulls out his gun) The hell with the ammo! Get these men back!

Driver: Oh alright.

They put Bill on the Jeep first.

Bill: (to Joe) I told you. I'd beat you back to the States. (passes out)

Sad Sack who had been kneeling beside a tree stood up and got on the Jeep after Joe was on and rode off with them, sobbing.

The men that were left looking at each other in shock. No one knows what to do since the loss of two important men.

Slowly one man walks off at a time.

The only thing left is the blood covered snow.

Please R&R!


End file.
